Greeter: Ben Laverty
Invocation: Duane Keathley
Song: Joe Hay led us in singing God Bless America
Roving Mic: Kathy Scrivner
Spoke Editor
Ashley Vorhees
Ashley Vorhees is the Executive Director for Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Kern County. A native to Kern County, Ashley graduated from Cal State, Bakersfield where she earned her BA in Communications. Go Runners! She is inspired daily by her two children, Grace and Noah. In her free time, Ashley likes to take up a good novel, golf and travel.
Guests:
• Lourdes Vasquez with Self-Help Federal Credit Union (Juan Bustamante)
• Carla Barrientos (Jorge Barriento’s lovely wife)
• Becky Skaggs with Providence Classical Academy (Jeff Gutierrez)
• Kenny Spratt with TalentBase (Georgia Petropoulos)
• Melanie Rosenlieb (Jay Rosenlieb’s lovely wife)
Good News & Announcements:
• Jeff shared with the group that Dr. Vernon Harper, along with his beautiful family, made the front page of Greet Seven Oaks, but couldn’t poke fun at him since Vernon didn’t attend Rotary today.
• Mike McCoy and his lovely bride went to New York to spread her mom’s ashes in the flower bed of an old home of hers, currently occupied by Neil Wyatt, an artist. He bent down to pretend to tie his shoe and got caught. Doesn’t sound like he was living by Rotary’s Four-Way Test. Morale of the story: don’t be like Mike McCoy.
Program:
Jefe Guiterrez continued his painful attempt to utilize AI technology. He claims that he was ‘inundated’ with emails from all of us about where Lillean was and shared a video of ‘Lillean’ driving away, waving goodbye. Sigh.
Thankfully, Jeff moved quickly into the presentation and Rotarians were treated to an informative presentation by John Mendiburu, Steve Sanders, and Cameron Guinn, Chief Systems Officer for the Kern County Superintendent of Schools.
John kicked things off with an overview of Kern County’s education system. He shared eye-opening insights about student demographics, how children enter school at different starting points, and the many ways educators work to meet each student right where they are.
Next up was Steve Sanders, who couldn’t resist sneaking in a quick “good news” announcement (mainly to avoid a $10 fine!). A big congratulations to Steve and his wife, DeeAnn, on celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary! From there, Steve walked us through a video on woodshop, explained how the education system is structured from the state level down to local districts, and highlighted how KCSOS supports all 46 school districts in areas ranging from transportation to college and career readiness.
Finally, Steve introduced Cameron Guinn, who shared big-picture goals for public education: helping students graduate so that they are ready to contribute meaningfully to society. He highlighted Kern High School District’s dual enrollment program, which allows students to earn a high school diploma while simultaneously working toward a college degree. Cameron emphasized the importance of growth as the ultimate goal for students, then revealed some encouraging (and not-yet-public!) data: over the past four years, Kern’s ELA and math scores have steadily improved. He also introduced the innovative KIDS platform, which helps schools and districts track student progress in real time.
The presentation wrapped up with two short but powerful videos showcasing the incredible work KCSOS is doing to support students across Kern County.
All in all, it was an insightful session that left the group hopeful about the future of public education in our community.
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